(10.) I have seen (or ‘observed,’ as we should write, this formula introducing a matter which observation makes manifest), with regard to the anxiety (ענין, see [chapter i. 13], references, the meaning previously assigned of ‘anxious care,’ or ‘uncertainty’ generally, the word being used to signify that special form of human misery which consists in the uncertainty in which man lives; this emphatic את the LXX. notice and render by their adverbial σὺν, and to show us that the observation was made, not of the uncertainty, but with respect to it) which has appointed (because this is the principal idea) even God (the nominative follows, and is without the article, because it is God in his personal character who is here referred to. The article is used when the word occurs generically, as in the sense of ‘the Deity’ or ‘the Almighty,’——‘which it is God’s appointment’ then is the meaning) to the sons of the man (that is, the human race as children of Adam) to be rendered uncertain therewith.
11 He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.
that the whole is suitable at its proper time. Moreover, with regard to the future, that too is put into their desires, but so that Man cannot find out the working of the Almighty as He works it out from its beginning even to its end.
(11.) With respect to the whole (again the emphatic את, and again noted by Σύμπαντα in the LXX., some copies reading, σὺν πάντα ἃ, ‘the whole which;’ as this preposition is repeated in the same clause, it is specially emphatic here) he made it fair (that is ‘appropriate,’ which the LXX. render καλὰ) in its time (one of these providential times or seasons above spoken of). Moreover (commencing another and additional argument, confirming the above), with respect to the age (again את repeated with the article, noticed as before by the LXX., and again by them rendered σὺν, meaning therefore generally, and also with regard to the indefinite future generically it is, etc.) is set (placed by God indeed, but the nominative is so far off that the verb is almost impersonal, or in other words all emphasis on the nominative is lost) in their hearts from the want of which (מבלי, occurs Job iv. 11; this word joined to the full relative must mean ‘but as they do not possess this knowledge of the future or this influence over the age, or course of things present and future, so as to control it,’ for this is the meaning of עלם, see [chapter i. 4], references.) does not find (emphatic, as standing before its nominative) the man (i.e. ‘Humanity generally cannot find’ or ‘discover’) with respect to the working (the LXX. do not render here by σὺν, probably because τὸ ποίημα is clear enough without it) which works (‘is the work of’) the Deity from the beginning even unto (this preposition being separated and joined with a conjunction is much more forcible than the mere affixed מ־ above, because, possibly, it is desired to render emphatic this final word which is reserved to the close of the sentence) the end (סוף, which occurs in this book in the sense of a final conclusion, see [chapter xii. 13], and which in the working of Divine Providence is especially mysterious).
12 I know that there is no good in them, but for a man to rejoice, and to do good in his life.
I am aware that there can be no real good to any, if it be not to rejoice and to see this good in their lives.